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HOW BARRE3 IS HELPING ME COME TO A HAPPY PLACE WITH MY BODY
Juliet Kozlow’s story is wholly unique—after all, most people don’t suffer a heart attack at age 22. And yet, it’s a story that’s also incredibly relatable. Read on to learn how Juliet’s heart attack forced her to let go of her attachment to what her body used to be capable of, and how barre3 helped her find a new normal she loves.
I affectionately call this past year my year of medical hell. In October of 2018 I started experiencing excruciating back pain. I had scans and tests, but doctors couldn’t find an answer for what was happening. They prescribed muscle relaxants and painkillers and sent me on my way.
On January 4th, 2019, I was in Winnipeg for work. I woke up in my hotel room at around 1 a.m. and my neck was stiff, my chest was hurting, and my left arm felt totally numb—all very typical heart-attack symptoms, but as a healthy 22-year-old with no family history of heart problems, a heart attack was the last thing on my mind. I had experienced anxiety issues and woken up with panic attacks before, so I chalked the symptoms up to mental tricks. I took a muscle relaxant and went back to sleep.
When I woke up the next morning at 8:00, I still had all the same symptoms. Any movement beyond breathing was painful. Even just putting my pants on was too much to bear—and I’m not a wimp! I texted my boss and told her I was going to the hospital before work that afternoon. My plan was to take an Uber, but thankfully she insisted on calling an ambulance.
At the hospital they determined that I’d had a Spontaneous Artery Coronary Dissection (SCAD). Basically, an artery low in my heart fizzled out and stopped blow flow to that part of my heart, causing a heart attack. I was super lucky that it wasn’t severe and I didn’t have to have surgery, but still, it was confounding. This type of heart attack typically happens to women in their 30s and early 40s who have had children. I was 22 at the time and had no children. I was a total anomaly. The doctors don’t know what caused my heart attack, and they don’t know if it will happen again.
Before my back pain and heart attack, I was an incredibly active person, often running 5Ks two or three times a week. But suddenly, my exercise was relegated to doing physical therapy. I finally found relief for my back when I went to a new doctor and discovered that I had a severely bulging disc in my spine—something the other doctors had all missed somehow. In August, I got spinal injections of prednisone, and the pain disappeared almost immediately.
Still, I couldn’t go back to my former super-active self. My cardiologist told me I needed to be much more mindful about what kind of physical activity I did, making sure my heart rate didn’t get up above about 150 or 160. To make matters more complicated, my job involved touring with a children’s entertainment group, so I needed a workout I could do from the road.
I had tried barre3 before and wondered if it could be an option for me. I sent my cardiologist and neurosurgeon links to a barre3 workout to get their approval, and they said that as long as I was paying attention to my heart rate and how my back felt, I could do it.
A week after my injections, I signed up for an online subscription and I’ve been doing three or four barre3 workouts weekly ever since. I choose my workout based on how I feel. If I’m feeling energized and not experiencing back pain, I’ll go for a 40-minute workout. On days when my body is telling me to go easy, I’ll opt for a shorter one that focuses on my core. I love that no matter what I choose, I can take the moves at my own pace and still feel the effects. I wear my Apple watch while I work out, and when I feel my heart rate rising—during step taps, for example—I’ll check my watch, and if I’m between 150 and 160 beats per minute, I’ll stop and do stretches until we move onto a different move.
I’m in a few heart attack support groups, and one of the things we talk about often is the importance of finding our “new normal.” It’s so tempting to think your body should be able to do what it used to do, but part of my recovery has been accepting that I’m living a different reality than I was a year ago. For a while, that presented a bad case of cognitive dissonance for me. But now, my body and I are coming to a happy medium with barre3. I can get the same satisfaction I used to get from running, but without putting myself in pain or in danger. This workout helps me feel a connection to who I was before—and that means so much to me. Barre3 is my new normal, and I’m loving it.
The barre3 January Challenge is a four-week program working to shift the focus of exercise from how you look to how you feel. Sign up today for unlimited barre3 classes, foam-rolling videos, a discount in the B3 Shop and more!
Juliet Kozlow’s story is wholly unique—after all, most people don’t suffer a heart attack at age 22. And yet, it’s a story that’s also incredibly relatable. Read on to learn how Juliet’s heart attack forced her to let go of her attachment to what her body used to be capable of, and how barre3 helped her find a new normal she loves.
I affectionately call this past year my year of medical hell. In October of 2018 I started experiencing excruciating back pain. I had scans and tests, but doctors couldn’t find an answer for what was happening. They prescribed muscle relaxants and painkillers and sent me on my way.
On January 4th, 2019, I was in Winnipeg for work. I woke up in my hotel room at around 1 a.m. and my neck was stiff, my chest was hurting, and my left arm felt totally numb—all very typical heart-attack symptoms, but as a healthy 22-year-old with no family history of heart problems, a heart attack was the last thing on my mind. I had experienced anxiety issues and woken up with panic attacks before, so I chalked the symptoms up to mental tricks. I took a muscle relaxant and went back to sleep.
When I woke up the next morning at 8:00, I still had all the same symptoms. Any movement beyond breathing was painful. Even just putting my pants on was too much to bear—and I’m not a wimp! I texted my boss and told her I was going to the hospital before work that afternoon. My plan was to take an Uber, but thankfully she insisted on calling an ambulance.
At the hospital they determined that I’d had a Spontaneous Artery Coronary Dissection (SCAD). Basically, an artery low in my heart fizzled out and stopped blow flow to that part of my heart, causing a heart attack. I was super lucky that it wasn’t severe and I didn’t have to have surgery, but still, it was confounding. This type of heart attack typically happens to women in their 30s and early 40s who have had children. I was 22 at the time and had no children. I was a total anomaly. The doctors don’t know what caused my heart attack, and they don’t know if it will happen again.
Before my back pain and heart attack, I was an incredibly active person, often running 5Ks two or three times a week. But suddenly, my exercise was relegated to doing physical therapy. I finally found relief for my back when I went to a new doctor and discovered that I had a severely bulging disc in my spine—something the other doctors had all missed somehow. In August, I got spinal injections of prednisone, and the pain disappeared almost immediately.
Still, I couldn’t go back to my former super-active self. My cardiologist told me I needed to be much more mindful about what kind of physical activity I did, making sure my heart rate didn’t get up above about 150 or 160. To make matters more complicated, my job involved touring with a children’s entertainment group, so I needed a workout I could do from the road.
I had tried barre3 before and wondered if it could be an option for me. I sent my cardiologist and neurosurgeon links to a barre3 workout to get their approval, and they said that as long as I was paying attention to my heart rate and how my back felt, I could do it.
A week after my injections, I signed up for an online subscription and I’ve been doing three or four barre3 workouts weekly ever since. I choose my workout based on how I feel. If I’m feeling energized and not experiencing back pain, I’ll go for a 40-minute workout. On days when my body is telling me to go easy, I’ll opt for a shorter one that focuses on my core. I love that no matter what I choose, I can take the moves at my own pace and still feel the effects. I wear my Apple watch while I work out, and when I feel my heart rate rising—during step taps, for example—I’ll check my watch, and if I’m between 150 and 160 beats per minute, I’ll stop and do stretches until we move onto a different move.
I’m in a few heart attack support groups, and one of the things we talk about often is the importance of finding our “new normal.” It’s so tempting to think your body should be able to do what it used to do, but part of my recovery has been accepting that I’m living a different reality than I was a year ago. For a while, that presented a bad case of cognitive dissonance for me. But now, my body and I are coming to a happy medium with barre3. I can get the same satisfaction I used to get from running, but without putting myself in pain or in danger. This workout helps me feel a connection to who I was before—and that means so much to me. Barre3 is my new normal, and I’m loving it.
The barre3 January Challenge is a four-week program working to shift the focus of exercise from how you look to how you feel. Sign up today for unlimited barre3 classes, foam-rolling videos, a discount in the B3 Shop and more!
